Manhattan’s depth and talent may send it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004, but the Jaspers are already making this a memorable season.
Following a season-opening, double-overtime win at La Salle on Saturday, Manhattan elevated the insanity with a frantic 71-70 win over Columbia on Tuesday night after George Beamon’s rebound and three-point play with 0.5 seconds remaining stunned the crowd at Levien Gymnasium.
“I’m done. I’m going on vacation tomorrow,” Manhattan coach Steve Masiello joked. “I feel like I’m on Game 40 already. … Not a good win, a great win for Manhattan tonight. Both of these games could’ve gone either way and we understand that.”
The back-and-forth affair seemed to have settled in Columbia’s favor after Grant Mullins, who scored a team-high 23 points and 12 of the team’s final 14 points, hit two free throws to give the Lions (1-1) a 70-67 lead with 19.9 seconds left.
The Jaspers struggled to find a good look on the ensuing possession, but Mike Alvarado pump-faked Maodo Lo and drew a foul on a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining.
Alvarado, who had hit 2-of-9 free throws, missed the first, made the second and missed the third — which Masiello called perhaps the “greatest miss in the history of Manhattan” — to practically ensure the upset, but teammate Emmy Andujar snuck in for the rebound.
Andujar’s shot from the baseline missed long, but landed in the hands of a leaping Beamon, who banked it in and fell to the floor as the buzzer sounded and the whistle shrieked, after a foul by Lo.
The game was tied, but Beamon knew it was over.
“Once I heard them say it was a foul, I knew I was going to hit the free throw,” said Beamon, who scored a game-high 28 points and hit 13-of-14 free throws after missing last season’s meeting due to an ankle injury. “I was telling my team, ‘It’s over.’ I was hitting it and the game’s over.”
Almost.
After the senior calmly sank the free throw, Columbia nearly made a tip-in attempt from Luke Petrasek, which hit the rim and bounced off, sending Manhattan running onto the court, back to the locker room and down Broadway on a chilly trek towards the 116th Street subway station to catch a late-night 1 train back to The Bronx.
The MAAC favorites arrived at the city rivalry as loudly as they left, breaking the silence on the elevated platform at the 242nd Street station with the sounds of trombones and assorted horns, as the team’s marching band and cheerleaders introduced them to perplexed and amused straphangers.
The ride down was quiet, with players wearing hoods and headphones, just waiting to play. The seven-mile, 14-stop, 20-something-minute ride back was a little more raucous.
“I will never enjoy New York transit as much as I will tonight,” Masiello said after the game. “We’re going to have so much fun on this ride right now. It’s going to be like New Year’s.”
At 2-0, Manhattan’s celebrating may just be getting started.